The 5 Best Las Vegas Sports Books

We've all experienced it at one point or another. You’re in Vegas and you want to put some money down on your favorite team, knock back a few, grab some grub and root on your team to cover the spread.

That all sounds good and fine until you actually get to the casino sports book and smell its air, which is a wicked cocktail of smoke, degenerate gamblers' last breaths, and two-day-old hot dogs. And what of those jonesers, who apparently live there — don’t you people have homes? —and go about their daily ritual of burying a carton of cigarettes into an already overstuffed ashtray, while mumbling something to themselves about a referee or a horse that didn’t come in. Good times!

Well after nearly 20 years of Las Vegas sports gaming, we at the Skulldogshow have seen the good, the bad and the ugly of Las Vegas sports gambling. And with that in mind, here's our take on the five sports books in town you should consider visiting on your next trip to Sin City.

5. Las Vegas Hilton

The largest space in Vegas weighs in at 30,000 square feet and features more than 1,000 seats on two levels. The main attraction at the Hilton is its 15x20 foot screen behemoth of a television that is a sight to behold. With these impressive stats, one would think that the Hilton would rank higher on our list but the blue-haired horse racing crowd takes a little bit of the overall experience away for us.

4. Mandalay Bay

Mandalay BaySascha Bruck via Wikimedia Commons

At one time, Mandalay was the hottest “new” sports book in Vegas, a place where you could play high limit games on all sports and horse racing. In the early '90s, yours truly used to think that Mandalay was the center of the universe with its 17-foot screen televisions, seating for 300 and the infamous “coconut” smell in the air. While other sports books rank higher in our ratings, Mandalay will always hold a special place in our hearts and pockets for years of good service.

3. Wynn Las Vegas

Wynn Las Vegaswolfgangstaudt via Wikimedia Commons

The Wynn caters to the high rollers out there. With rich and luxurious interior décor, it looks and feels more like a high-end steak house than a sports book. We love the private VIP lounge here, where you can take a bachelor party of up to 20 dudes for an “exclusive” good time. With a topless pool and luxury sports book, you can see why Steve Wynn is an entertainment genius, as well as one of the richest entrepreneurs in America.

2. Caesars Palace Las Vegas

Caesars Palace Las VegasArnold C via Wikimedia Commons

Consistently rated the “top sports book” by the Las Vegas Review Journal, Caesars is at the top of our list for its wide open floor plan and sea of plasmas thrown together with a little old-school Roman charm. When you think sports books, you think Caesars, and you have not lived until you have spent the opening Thursday or Friday on the floor during March Madness opening weekend. It's truly an experience you will never forget. Lastly, it has a rich history of booze-filled pranks, like the time we saw a guy humping the horse mannequin that draws Caesar’s chariot to win a $300 bet off of his buddies.

1. Lagasse's Stadium - The Palazzo

The Palazzo David Herrera via Flickr

While we are certainly not ones to jump on the latest trends in life, we have to say that we were blown away by Lagasse’s Stadium at the Palazzo Hotel. Celebrity Chef Emeril Lagasse has created one of the freshest — and dare I say most luxurious — sports gaming environments in the world today: Lagasse’s Stadium. While normally, we would never mix luxury and sports gaming together in the same sentence, it actually works here quite well. It's a refreshing change of pace (can you say modern furniture?) from the same old tired formula.

Lagasse has its own sports book, something called pocketcasino gaming, and more than 100 high-definition televisions. Plus, rather than retreating to your room to get a decent meal and watch the game (like we did for Super Bowl XXXVI), you can order quality food and cocktails, and have them delivered to your luxury suite!